Teething

So I definently have a new hero... my daughter. And no, it's not for all those corny reasons that people give like, "her brave soul" or "her incredible innocence" or any of that. Give me a glass of red wine or two, and I might start saying those things... but i digress...

I'm in admiration of her tonight because there are razor sharp pieces of solid calcium pushing their way through her tiny, soft delicate gums. In other words, she is getting a tooth.

It's like just when she got used to life on this bizarre planet -- with all it's loud people and hot, sticky weather and general yuckiness -- life says, "but wait, there's more! How about piercing pain in your mouth, and excruciating awfulness, even though you have done nothing to deserve it!"

And yet even as I fuss over her, she looks up at me with those baby blues and it's like she's saying, "It's ok Mom. I'm tough enough for the both of us."

So she's a drooling, chewing, cranky mess. But somehow she's still calm through it all. And I know that I need to get used to the fact that she will go through things in life that I can't just "fix" for her, and I might as well learn that lesson early.

Today it's teeth, tomorrow it will be falling on her butt, in 15 years it will be a boy that I'll want to strangle for breaking her heart.

But she will survive it all -- just like every girl has done before her. Now we will just have to see about her no-so-tough mommy...